the week's top stories. between turkey and syria after four days of. foreign intervention. to a. twenty four year old russian. president between the country's. democratic rival and we hear from the president.

with the stories that made headlines this week this is the weekly with me. turkey and syria on the brink of war after a four day exchange of life right across the border fighting was triggered by the syrian side on wednesday with a mortar killing five turkish civilians women and children responded with artillery . sending troops into syria if necessary. shells have landed on turkish soil provoking more. does not want war but then war. further attack and it's not exactly clear who is responsible for the provocations but. under the control of rebels some expert. suspect the shelling

could be a false flag to incite into. you've got opposition forces there there and they they they are desperate they they are low on ammunition and they are there and i think they would love to have turkey get into the get into the fight they're moving they've moved their headquarters from turkey into to syria and that's going to set up a logistical problem for them in coordination with forces inside of turkey to bring in more ammunition and and logistics to back them up but would be an easier way then to set up a situation where where you bring turkey into the into the fight and in order to provide that kind of distance that they need i don't rule that out. and the salafist working there in that in that region there they're very very good

at that kind of set up. and claims emerged this week that some western backed syrian rebels are planning to target jewish communities once they have toppled assad this comes as the u.s. and its allies maintain that the president must step down while they have offered no clear alternative several potential candidates are being groomed abroad one of them at the syrian general tell us whose father is an alleged anti semite we spoke to the journalist who broke the story. he says the rebels could easily by the hand that feeds them. the irony of supporting the rebels who may eventually become great enemies of the west is something that's lost in the interview on the very eager interventionists who are pushing the west to intervene in syria to arm the opposition interviewed a group of rebels in damascus who were holed up in various parts of damascus and very suburban i interviewed them and some of them

a few of them who traveled from afghanistan said that they had a big fight against the jews ahead of them and this is a million to me because i've met people elsewhere particularly in pakistan who say that they have a fight with the jews ahead of them so they see that as the ultimate i mean one of the things that was particularly disturbing to me is how close is being groomed as a possible replacement for assad not a lot of people know that men are classes father. lasse is a first rate he's written a book called the marts of design which talks about the blood libel and he was smuggled out class was smuggled out of the country by french spies he is he keeps making trips to saudi arabia but not a lot of people know this history behind him and our people should be wary of. our class being groomed as a possible replacement. thanks for joining us here on our today still to come for you in this program. about. the opposition in grain

with tear gas and water cannons away from the gulf state grows by the day. for now a twenty four year old russian student remains in critical condition after being brutally beaten inside a canadian detention center almost two months ago denise was arrested after he allegedly threatened another student russia has demanded a full investigation and punishment for those responsible for the attack. has more . a trip to study english in canada gone horribly wrong twenty four year old denise teller cough arrived in calgary in june eager to learn about the country and make new friends it was at this language school those friends would quickly turn to enemies with a misunderstanding over a girl she was charged with making threats and placed in calgary's remand center

actually we're going to look like you were only. you know larry you know. that you know what. i mean. there was a big misunderstanding while his family in moscow tried to scrape together the bail money things took a turn for the worse cellmates brutally attacked him jumping on his head repeatedly after a month on the life support machine denise recently regain consciousness doctors say he's in a vegetative state his adoring family is devastated. no eating our meals or you have been grooming through you. for your worries go our way or you know very slowly. the charges that denise faced have now been dropped which in turn meant the detention center was no longer responsible for his medical bills leaving his family facing

a financial nightmare on top of the emotional one local media campaigning to raise funds for denise's ballooning medical bills. or what action. all your work or do you call it bull or. general or. all. or all or warm or. well. denise isn't the only victim to emerge from this facility last month another man christopher kirk suffragette a lacerated spleen and a broken nose after a similar attack while in custody. very often in sharpening all we were and into not a lot but. you know when we were dating. in the war i mean

condition are well for the young man so eager to find out about life in canada studying english like he didn't initially set out is now a distant prospect fast he'll once again have to learn the basics how to walk feed himself and speak his native russian denise's family can only hope that the country where this brutal attack took place provides him with the help he so desperately needs polly boyko r t. and on our website right now are two dot com israel faces a multimillion dollar lawsuit over the death during its two thousand and ten raid on a turkish aid flotilla. bust grand hopes russia's space agency and nasa planning an extended mission on the international space station all of this in a bid to get just one step closer to that of the red but not the top call with all the details. twenty first century socialism

or putting an oil dependent economy on liberal rails the dilemma for voters as they now begin to cast their votes in today's presidential election in venezuela a current leader and his young democratic rival are neck and neck in opinion polls and as artie's lucic caffein of reports the vote is not only crucial for the nation but for that of the entire continent. well the stakes could not be higher as venezuelans take to the polls to determine who will leave their country for the next six years at one end as president incumbent president hugo chavez has represented a radical change for venezuela and the region as a whole under his so-called twenty first century socialism policies but this is meant as a nationalization of certain industries as well as the use of venezuela's revenues from oil exports to really focus attention on some of the poorest segments of the population here at the same time venezuela is plagued with a high crime rate one of the highest in the world as well as corruption and these are just some of the issues that have been seized on by the opposition candidate

and the previous he's a forty year old very wealthy businessman who criticize the country's economic policies now he's also promised to improve relations with the west now critics say and fear that he would really represent a radical shift for the country in the sense that he could impose austerity programs and possibly roll back some of those popular economic social justice missions that hugo chavez has put into place now the results of this election will be significant far beyond this country's borders we have to keep in mind that venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves and the winner will get to determine just how to use this multi-trillion dollar assets the likes of the u.s. wants access to that as well as black gold they aren't likely to get it under chavez administration the president has promised to ramp up production and reduce his country's dependence on the western markets by doubling crude exports to asia according to chavez as a new world order that the west is just going to have to get used to the. petroleum five countries which possess the majority of reserves. russia iran saudi arabia

iraq. apart from oil there's a political side to the issue that is. the world would be dominated by washington but is. not a world power my victory in this election is due. it could only be dangerous for striving to dominate the world now again the last time venezuelans took to the polls to vote for their president was six years ago there is massive excitement here both candidates have called on supporters to come to the streets early even hours before the polls opened it's a very festive mood people are very excited about this opportunity to really have a strong say about which direction they want their country and the region to go on and we will of course keep you updated throughout the day on these developments party in caracas venezuela. and venezuela as would be warmly welcomed by washington for another way of reasons as according to james petro

a professor of sociology at new york's binghamton university. the united states would like to get rid of chavez and put on more malleable client like capri lace fact in power for a student chavez has taken a very independent foreign policy position opposing a us military intervention in the middle east he's opposed to u.s. free trade agreement and has been an extraordinarily influential. president in fomenting eight latin american integration which essentially means the exclusion of the united states so all along the line president chavez has been defining an alternative route for latin america is sensually you have two different philosophies you have chavez promoting social democracy in a in a generic sense of the word against

a candidate who wants to go back to turn the clock back to the one nine hundred ninety s. nail liberal policies privatization primacy of your ties to the u.s. it's cetra so you have a real choice and not an echo in in this election. you're watching auti live from moscow it has been a week of unrest ending with clashes between police and until government protesters in bahrain authorities are cracking down almost daily on the opposition that scorning for more rights and and to discrimination on monday the country's court upheld jail terms for nine that medics who helped to treat pro-reform campaigners data demonstrators threw petrol bombs and stones at security officials following a funeral for an activist who died in custody of alleged mistreatment this friday police dispersed crowds of dissent has with water cannons and tear gas the sunni want to he has been cracking down on the opposition for twenty two months now with a new eight hundred deaths over roll thousands were arrested including prominent

human rights activist and i believe that job he's currently in prison for attending an. legal demonstration. out of money from bahrain's largest opposition party has the courts of law and the prophets on the road. or international but isn't that national but is talking about but as not just this and but and the whole process and look at the and conductors just on the control that maybe when it comes to that people are people who will be in subjected to. treatment or even killing the court just totally acknowledging that if there is a guilty. as you will find ten and so all these of the same and they had to be imprisoned like maybe their job and others even for just expressing their opinions this is their sort of just you should not that if you are. a fresh spy scandal involving russian citizens surfaced in america this week the f.b.i.

arrested a group of employees at a u.s. based electronics company accusing them of illegally providing millions of dollars worth of cutting edge technology to moscow investigators claim they acquired data could be used by the russian military eight people four of whom have russian passports are still under arrest charged with espionage an illegal commercial activities moscow says the case is criminal dismissing any talk of a so-called spy scandal. or on the way for you here at our georgian dream becomes reality countries feel secure as a crucial victory over the ruling party forcing president saakashvili to go on the defensive. and teach us produce a thousand strong peace rally ignores threats sets out to reach pakistan's most troubled region that story in detail and more in just a couple of minutes. no

one should be proud. of scrap metal littering pristine arctic landscape building stilton over their foundation pipes being black smoke over the snow covered peaks the traces of the soviet industrial activity on the spitzbergen archipelago don't make a pretty picture in the guiding principle here is the worst the better that can do nine hundred eighty there was a burgeoning mining community union it was determined to maintain its own costs to a degree located halfway between north america and western europe in archipelago is part of norway but a special status that allows other countries to set up industrial bases here in the middle of the cold war it served as the use of stars westernmost outpost now it's one of the soviet union flag. preserved relics. is essentially

a picture of what would have happened to the soviet union if it was cut off from any financial support for two decades curious western tourists think it could be even more appealing for russian travellers the local administration is increasingly under pressure to bring the infrastructure up to modern standards if these modernization efforts i'm not very popular with tourists if you come into a very authentic place like bond. should stay the way it is that would be my wish i mean that's the part of the you know authentic tradition here. i should not i would not like to have it in the shiny condition to be honest the time to change even for the better is not always good for business something that even a local band has become attuned to when they try to add morning russian songs to the repertoire. called the wanted to hear it was a song comfortably familiar. sunday

afternoon here in moscow you're watching on the weekly the u.s. presidential candidates barack obama of course and mitt romney they clashed over the role of the economy and the government in their first t.v. debate that was scheduled and at this week polls showed romney overwhelmed incumbent obama commanding the ninety minute duel romney said his rival is in favor of a trickle down government said romney would bring the nation back to bush era economic policies the us president has a slight edge in the polls but is vulnerable due to criticism over we. growth unemployment and health care reform historian and gerald hall in bunny's vote has

a well between a rock and a hard place to place you here unfortunately in this debate is one reason why nowadays there are those who say that what we haven't learned states is not democracy but a mockery that is to say what happens in other states is that all the candidates of the left such as the green party are barred from this kind of presidential debate and as a result the kinds of policies that president obama has been acting that are subject to withering criticism from the left for example bailing out the banks but not bailing out homeowners for example this war against libya they were not able to be criticized adequately by his opponent mr romney and as a result you have a very very tepid debate that takes place how can you have a realistic debate about the problems that this country faces the many problems this country faces when the kinds of analysis and critique from the left are basically excluded basically this debate comes down in many ways to

a choice between tweedle dum and tweedle dee. i will go to the author world of that in just a couple of minutes from now of hundreds of pakistanis joined by foreign peace activists marching through the country in protest against u.s. drone strikes the convoy led by a cricket legend an opposition front. is heading into south waziristan it's a region plagued by insurgency and most frequently targeted by american missiles this despite warnings from pakistan's taliban militants the protestors could become targeted by suicide bombers political activist believes the rally though has the full support of the people. the lords the grand jury go out of that region has welcomed in india it would be only an assistance that is being provided by the government of iraq sound which does not want to open this up to exposure because for the past five years they've been hiding the fact that zones have been attacking

this region on the on the public front they actually deny it but on privately behind the doors of the u.s. government they actually accept the fact just a simple attack most of the energy and unfortunately for the past five years our government has actually bought into the american war on terror the american war has now become our war and they should be should catch on all of these terrorists that are doing it but unfortunately not able they're not able to handle the economic affairs of the country let alone this terrorism issue that has been before in our country. our let's get into it the r.t. world update now will start with south korea which has announced an agreement with the west which allows it to possess missiles capable of reaching north korea the previous arms pact with washington restricted souls' ability to develop or deploy long range rockets making many targets in the communist state. now this could possibly raise the tensions in the asia pacific region as parts of japan and china now also fall within. the filipino government has reached

a preliminary agreement with the country's biggest muslim rebel group president benigno aquino confirmed the deal which will result in the creation of a new region in the country's muslim dominated south before the end of his term in two thousand and sixteen details are yet to be discussed by both sides but this however does make a virtual end to forty years of conflict which has claimed the lives of over one hundred twenty thousand people. the leader of kuwait has dissolved the country's parliament paving the way for snap elections. was widely expected to take the step the main demand of the islamist led opposition this is the dissolution of parliament six two thousand and six a kuwait was spared uprisings like those seen across parts of the arab world since last year tensions have been growing between the parliament and the hand-picked

government which is dominated by the ruling from. israel claims a drone shot down over its territory on saturday is of iranian origin the unmanned plane entered israel's as space from the south and was reportedly heading towards the dimona nuclear reactor for surveillance israeli officials called the incident a potential act of terrorism in the past similar missions have been carried out by the lebanese militant group hezbollah. now mass protests have taken place in several cities across. as people continue to vent their anger over intensifying spending cuts protesters gathered in venice on saturday morning an immediate referendum on independence from rome as follows a series of bomb clashes between students and riot police that saw several officers injured earlier this week professor. of separatist party organize the venetian rally believes that with biting cuts getting worse the floating city will be much

better off on its own. or in a situation worse than a colony because there's a worse once they get x. rayed in italy it's the highest in the world and our services so far. are extremely poor we have twenty billion nice in modern regional resources each year and that's some bearable and these three. a couple days ago there was a siege of the same arts belt powered by four workers and there's this situation here in van it so it's it's almost explosive sold to the day we had them thousands of people who have gathered in krakow there are regional government for sure in italy we're not the only one there is really in sort of the yeah i have strong movements for a chorus who are the best organized but soon after i know it's going to happen there are regions to legally. the opposition in georgia is still celebrating after

resting the majority of seats in parliament away from the ruling party in monday's vote the georgian dream a blogger secured more than half of the votes while president saakashvili is allies barely top forty percent and. reports the leaders authority has been rocked. it was a jubilation like never before seen in billy c. it felt like georgia had won the world cup. their win was not yet been found but thousands took to the streets to celebrate supporters of it it was this in particular that in central square policing played out to the exit poll results suggest that their party could be the serious in the parliamentary election something hardly any one of them would have expected in the coming months ago last year the ruling party is rating was at seventy percent and nobody could challenge that so confident was saakashvili that he amended the constitution granting more powers to the prime minister a position many predicted he would eventually feel himself little did he know he

was digging his own hole he moved this changes to the constitution does it count as a dream that he never see the parliament these are the majority of this party but that's a little less clear however this situation did not come out of nowhere prison torture tapes released in september. the hardest thousands took to the streets as allegations emerged that he personally ordered the torture and filming of these atrocities and now the president could even lose his job with the possible next prime minister really already making his intention clear. this man's ideology has established a climate of lines of violence and torture it will be good if he submits his resignation rather than now starting various procedures to force him to resign saakashvili did concede defeat live on air but the question remains whether he's really. to let go of the reins it could be

a dramatic change or it could be the herald of a period of infighting talking to his admission of defeat in a sense perhaps shows that he's a wounded animal but the would be still a fear that he would use the prerogatives of the president to try to split the opposition remember it's a rather disparate group of people who have been primarily united by still a two to saakashvili it wasn't only the prison tape scandal which brought saakashvili is fortress of power down say experts corruption among elites daunting poverty in playing hardball with russia all contributed the new ruling party says it will address these issues in the first place but as the party continues in belief georgia is bracing itself for a new era and the first peaceful transition of power in its post soviet history. r.t. reporting from belief in georgia and r.t. is coming to you live from moscow and i just a few minutes the youngsters whose addiction to adrenaline takes them to new extreme heights if you suffer from vertigo the man i want to watch this if you

don't however enjoy. wealthy british style holds. on to. the. markets why not scandals. find out what's really happening to the global economy in cars a report on. the world from the. science technology innovation hall the least of melamine from around russia we've gone to the future covered. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.

by horse. by tractor. by car where the road ends. as a carpenter. as a stove setter. does a farmer. as a.